It was called a "national tragedy" by then-president Ronald Reagan and inspired a song by pop singer Pat Boone, with the fetuses finally buried in 1985.
[11] The matter came in front of the judge because of a lawsuit filed against Van de Kamp by Carol Downer of the Los Angeles Feminist Women's Health Center and the American Civil Liberties Union.
John Lynch, the chief deputy county counsel stated it was inappropriate to enjoin Van de Kamp, who was simply a "man in the middle", and that the lawsuit should be filed against abortion rights groups instead.
[14] In June 1982, Los Angeles County Superior Court judge Dickran Tevrizian issued a temporary restraining order against Van de Kamp to prevent the unconstitutional release of the fetuses to groups for burial, but allowed him to legally dispose of the fetuses, called "vague" by John Lynch, the chief deputy county counsel.
[9][15] The fetuses were not buried at Valhalla, which later stated it offered the burial plot because "the right-to-life groups came to us, and we said we wouldn't endorse any political viewpoint, but we thought that interring the bodies was a proper thing to do as a service".
The case had been appealed by Carol Downer of the Los Angeles Feminist Women's Health Center and the American Civil Liberties Union and was denounced by the California Pro-Life Medical Association, the Catholic League.
The Court's opinion stated "it is clear from the record that the Catholic League is a religious organization which regards a fetus as a human being and abortion as murder.
[26] In August 1985, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors ordered the fetuses be turned over to the Guerra-Gutirrez-Alexander Mortuary for burial.
[28] The disposition occurred on October 6, 1985, with the fetuses in six pine boxes, which were buried at the Odd Fellows Cemetery in Boyle Heights.
Reagan's message stated "Just as the terrible toll of Gettysburg can be traced to a tragic decision of a divided Supreme Court, so also can these deaths we mourn.
[30][31] Weisberg's Medical Analytical Laboratories received nearly $175,000 in Medi-Cal payments, with $88,000 coming from pathology tests on aborted fetuses.
By the Hyde Amendment, this money was ineligible for testing on pre-abortion or post-abortion tissue, which meant the state of California would need to pay back federal funds claimed by Weisberg and by any other laboratories, according to HHS inspector Richard P. Kusserow.